Most Americans during their lifetime will experience some form of pain in their lower back which will cause them problems such as frustrating discomfort, disabled function from movement or bending, possible incapacitation or debilitation in extreme cases, loss of sleep, psychological impact and, in other cases, even be the catalyst to loss of employment. As a result, persons with lower back pain will either fight through the pain with the assistance of the application of heat and ice in the hope that the pain will subside or, alternatively, seek medical consultation and treatment by medication. At first blush, this may seem like a sensible plan since it is possible to weather painful episodes in this manner. Unfortunately, the pain typically returns and when it does, the symptoms are worse as more areas of the back or legs are now affected. This creates a vicious cycle of pain and disability. The reason for this cycle is that when a painful episode in the lower back is exhausted (i.e., lessened or even appear gone), the muscles in the lower back remain affected and can even become atrophied. As a person experiences more and more painful episodes in the lower back over time, changes occur in the muscle fibers which further increase the frequency of the painful episodes and, thereby, continue to cause them problems.
While muscle strengthening programs aimed at training the lumbar spine muscles are widely supported as being important and even crucial in the life of a person with lower back pain, a more complete model of lower back pain takes into account changes in muscles at the cellular level. Persons who have lower back pain not only have discomfort but experience changes in the muscle force output and a reduction in the nerve signal which prevents the muscle from functioning properly. This model is referred to as a neuromusculoskeletal model and was originally proposed by Panjabi. Essentially, pain causes inhibition to a particular muscle system. The problem is that the lumbar spine muscles must support the movement patterns whether small or large and they also need to stabilize intersegmental motion to avoid damaging ligaments and joint capsules. Lack of muscle control can cause lumbar spine segments to move excessively, giving rise to the pain and discomfort. Clinicians who treat first time, second time, or chronic lower back pain need to focus on what causes a muscle to contract and on how to reduce the inhibition to a particular segmental level. Neuromusculoskeletal dysfunction can lead to poor spinal motion and also a reduction in the ability of a person to perform sports and life activities to their optimal abilities. Neurophysiological control is therefore vital for the spinal cord segmental levels to provide motor control signals to the muscle.
There is a unique relationship between the medial branch of the dorsal ramus of the spinal nerve and the muscles that are at the same segmental level (e.g., L4 nerve supplies the L4 multifidus muscles at that same level). Correcting the muscles at this level requires that the segments are correctly aligned and mobile for proper functioning to occur. The muscle group, the multifidus, is the most medial portion of the lower back muscles and has two roles in the spine that are accomplished using two types of muscle fibers systems. There is a deep or type I fiber system and also a superficial or type II fiber system. Type I fibers control the intersegmental motion and give inherent stability to the spine itself, while the type II superficial system aide in trunk movement patterns (i.e., flexion, side flexion, and rotation). If there is a segmental inhibition at one of the lumbar spine levels, this leads to alterations in the firing pattern that is sent to the type I and II multifidus fibers which can cause segmental changes (hyper or hypomobility) due to the poor firing to that particular fiber bundle.
However, if the multifidus muscles of the lower back are targeted and strengthened, this can restore the strength in the deep muscles of the lumbar spine enabling the muscles to function normally. The result is that the patient will then have less back pain permitting their quality of life to be restored or, at the very least, improved to a level that is not only functional, but enjoyable.
Thus, there is a need and there has never been disclosed Applicant's unique apparatus for isolating lower back muscles.